reconnect to network drive at logon - solved

[Stern]

I have a WinXP SP3 machine that I want to always be connected to a network folder, regardless of rebooting etc. The network folder needs a login, which I gave when I used the 'Map Network Drive' feature in windows. I also ticked the 'Reconnect at Logon' box but when I tried rebooting it didn't connect.

Is this because it is password protected? Is there some special way of connecting to network drives that required login automatically? I need this because the computer is running 24/7 as a fax server and converts incoming faxes to pdf's and does several things with them, including leaving a copy on the network server. If it dies and someone needs to reboot they shouldn't have to put in the password.

Thanks for any help,

Stern

 

[bsobel]

Windows Home and MCE doesnt support cached credentials, PRO does. You can work around this by having your startup group run a batch file which net uses the drive...

 

[Stern]

Can you tell me the command to attach a network folder? I almost never use the Windows command line for anything so I haven't got a clue where to start.

 

[bsobel]

net use drive: \\server\share /user:username password

 

[RebateMonger]

I've had a similar situation with backups. Connecting to a network folder can be troublesome if somebody isn't logged onto the PC all the time. Remember that "Reconnect at Logon" means that there won't be a connection until somebody logs onto the computer. (Or you use an autologon setup).

My suggestion is to create a shared folder on the FAXing computer. Save the .PDF files there. Then run a scheduled task on the network server to grab the files from the shared folder and move them to the network server. That way, as long as the FAXing computer is running at all, whether somebody is logged on or not, the files will get copied.

You'll want to create an account/password on the FAXing computer that matches an account/password on the network server so that the network server can have access to the shared folder.

 

[Stern]

Thanks for the advice guys, I will try these out in a bit and let you know if it worked.

 

[Stern]

Originally posted by: bsobel
net use drive: \\server\share /user:username password

This one worked perfectly. Thank you!